terrible parable

TERRIBLE PARABLE

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A favored minion ( defined as a Book Sender, that honored and oh too rare bird ) sent me the book “Paradise For Sale” which is all about the tiny island of Nauru- the infamous island that is being mined of its phosphate mineral, asking one to ponder who in the heck would export part or most of their land when they are smack dab in the middle of a big ass ocean. Now, I had the same question and if you’ll delve deep into your rusty and cobwebbed memory you will remember that I’ve covered this before. Alas, I based my ill advised drivel on a magazine article which as it turned out was about as educational as an infomercial. They barely scratched the surface and the scarcity of information did nothing to foster any deeper analysis. So, this book was very helpful in vastly enlarging the context one should have on this subject. The magazine basically just pointed a trembling finger and laughed heartily at the stupidity of little brown people. This book was not so much better in unearthing the reasoning behind everything, but it did provide so much background information I was able to do this on my own. The book was weak in its underlying assumptions, but that was okay since it pointed me in the right direction. You have to admit its usefulness even if their motivations were a bit suspect.

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“Paradise” was printed by the University of California Press, so you would expect that there is a bit of Fruit And Granola nonsense going on. And you would of course be correct. Yes, there was a mighty effort at clear and levelheaded thinking, but in the end you could discern the intent of an eco-warrior attempting to save Gaia from humans folly. Nothing wrong with it this time, because as I said at least a mighty attempt at rational thinking was made. This wasn’t just a Unibomber screed like most of them are. But it was clear that the authors would have liked the Nauruan’s to have turned back the clock at independence towards the historical sustainability and were a bit disappointed when they didn’t. The book had a lot of examples of other societies that crashed and burned due to resource depletion ( the book was from 2000, so it came out several years before “Collapse”- you’ll see a few familiar examples as they cited a lot of the earlier work of Diamond from magazine articles ). And it had one example of an island that recognized the danger and imposed draconian restrictions that restored sustainability ( and even then it took one friggin thousand years for the island and the surrounding ocean to replenish itself!! ) by limiting the population ( besides birth control and infanticide there was the young men journeying by boat away from the island- one imagines being forced out by unavailability of brides and still retaining the slime hope they could reach another island ).

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And that is the basis for this book. Showing what a few had done and what most should do, a path towards sustainable living. Living below the carrying capacity. Now, I have no basic fundamental problem with sustainability. That is the way we all will be living soon enough ( although, being totally honest I can admit towards feeling my age and wishing this whole rotten edifice can survive a few more decades and let me die peacefully with a good book in my hand- sure, dying with a boob in your hand is better, but a bit disconcerting for your partner ). My problem is the thinking that believes we can get there voluntarily. All cultural variations world wide are responses to local environments and the attempt to survive. Baring the threat of neighboring invasion, you can abandon growth and go to sustainable living. So, yes, a remote island could, if it has a homogenous population, all agree on the sacrifices needed to get to this level. The problem arises when you are threatened by outsiders.

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Growth is a really good survival strategy when the other tribe is a threat. Sure, degrading the soil might pose a threat in twenty years, or a hundred years, but not growing more food weakens your army and allows invasion next year. The philosophy “tomorrow will take care of itself” isn’t due to the inability to think clearly, or due to sloth, but a recognition that you make the best available choices with the problems you have now, and then you figure out how to sort out those consequences later ( the book would have you believe that this island philosophy was due to unclear thinking, and that only sustainable living decisions are rational ). In the case of Nauru, there was a very good reasons to continue mining phosphorus, even as it was recognized the economic and environmental problems that presented.

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The islanders weren’t stupid with the wealth that mining brought. They had a very large trust fund to invest with ( the fact that most of the investments which were tourist orientated [ Melbourne hotels, etc. ] was a good idea at the time but of course doesn’t work well in an oil down economic contraction ). They chose to mine the remainder, invest the proceeds and live off of investment interest dividends. This isn’t stupid at all, but rather what most middle class folks did here for their retirement ( which, in hindsight, obviously worked out just as well as for the islanders ). The authors make it seem oh so sad and tragic that the islanders didn’t take the sustainable path immediately at independence. But remember, this book was written before the current economic meltdown. Back in the late Sixties, investing wealth and living off interest was seen globally as smart and normal and even perpetually possible. But besides being the smart choice, there was something else that made this the inevitable choice. The near genocide of the islanders in WWII.

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When Japan invaded the island, both for its mineral wealth and for its strategic location, they imprisoned and relocated a lot of the population. During the fighting, much of the island flora and fauna was destroyed. Topping that off, the mines were dormant for years and no income was coming in to the islanders. This was still fresh in the islanders minds at independence twenty years later. They saw how easily the ecosystem was destroyed. If they relied on the market system, the were diversified globally. No one war or disaster would wipe them out economically. Nauru never blindly allowed their island to be mined for short term profit. They chose the best form of long term survival available to them. Just because that is now biting them in the ass is irrelevant. At the time, the likely path towards sustainability was death. One cyclone, one occupation during the Cold War, and the trees would be destroyed, the fishing reefs gone, and they would starve. By allowing the mining to continue, the islanders aligned themselves with the victorious western powers and were enfolded into the global market economy. If anyone is guilty of the problems mining brings Nauru, blame the Japanese. Not the islanders themselves.

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It is never as simple as we want it to be, is it?

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